SynopsisHazel, Fiver, Bigwig and Kehaar go to Efrafa to
try and find some does to join them. They soon find out just who they are
dealing with.

Guest
VoicesJohn Hurt - General WoundwortStephen Gately -
Blackavar

Favourite
Quote"You ask which I prefer; War or Peace. I answer War!" -
General Woundwort

Personal
ReviewWithout a doubt, this has to be one of the best episodes of the
series so far, and certainly ranks amongst the top episodes overall. After
seeing the first signs of Efrafa in the last episode, with Campion and Vervain,
we finally get to meet General Woundwort. For a first appearance, the dialogue
and animation have been beautifully combined to instantly establish his evil
character. We see him sentence an attempted escapee to death.

The one sentenced to this
is an interesting character too; Blackavar. Always makes me laugh at the strange
haircut the animators gave him, but it's the voiceover which is noticeable. Its
Stephen Gately, the singer who provides the vocals for the modern version of
Bright Eyes. Having a character with the irish accent is great. It's just a
shame Stephen only does the voice for a couple of episodes.

Of course, he never
actually does die, thanks to the intervention of another new character - a doe
called Primrose. Now, Im not going to hide the fact. I hate her!! Her voice is
dull, the character animation is bland and.... well, I just dont like her.
Sadly, Hazel falls for her, so we know we're going to be seeing more of her.
Besides this, Character
interaction in this episode is certainly one of the high points. The scene
between Woundwort and Fiver, where Fiver can see visions of what happened to
Woundwort when he was a young buck is particularly moving. Its great to
see even the strong General showing a moment of weakness where he
cowers shouting 'Get them out of my head'.

As usual, the humour is
never lost, even in such a dark episode. My favourite has to be part of the
chase scene. Fiver is exhaused, and tells Bigwig to go on without him. Bigwig's
wonderful encouragement is hilarious - 'get moving you pathetic pondweed' (or
something like that).

The only real flaw I
noticed in the episode relates to the railway (or iron road). The first time the
rabbits cross it on the way to Efrafa, its suddenly become nighttime. Now, as
the journey there is a long one, we could just assume several hours have passed.
Where this is less forgivable is on the return journey. There the Watership
rabbits are fleeing for their lives, pursued by Woundwort. One second in the
wood its broad daylight. The next, where they cross the railway, its suddenly
nighttime, before magically becoming daytime again seconds later. It's not the
biggest mistake I've ever seen, but it's certainly quite a stupid
one.

Finally, another
interesting thing about this episode is the number of clips from it which appear
in the future opening titles. From episodes 1 to 5(this one), we've only seen
the version starting with a map of the down. From episode 6, a different set
takes over, using an awful lot of brief snapshots from this particular episode.
Just a bit of useless information for you all.

Rating (Out of 6) - Good

A
brilliant first appearance for General Woundwort, and fast-paced action
involving Efrafa, give this episode a high score. It was very close to a 6,
but that little mistake with the Railway keeps bugging me. More unforgivably,
its the first appearance of my least favourite rabbit Primrose. For this reason,
it only scored 5.